DIY happiness

My memory boxes

I have two boxes. They are my memory boxes. In my first box, I keep all of the cards I have received for my birthday, for Christmas, from my friends and family travelling across the world.

In my second box, I keep all of my cards, pictures, movie tickets, exhibition tickets related to the relationship with my boyfriend.

I don’t think I’ve ever realised how important these boxes could be.

I am currently struggling to overcome a burn-out. I worked very hard for more than a year in a highly competitive firm, where I had a lot of responsibilities. I never felt like I was treated with respect and I used to work for hours on end without ever being able to reduce the workload. I would work for ten hours a day without any breaks, in a stressful environment. I would never receive any credit for all of the extra hours I was putting in, and I felt very alone.

At one point, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was so stressed out I couldn’t sleep at night. I felt like I was becoming a harsh and bitter person. So I gave my notice and left two months after.

After that, I was home for about a month and a half, looking for another job. The job hunt was quite difficult and stressful, I’m sure I wasn’t bringing my a game. When I finally found a new job, I was relieved.

Even so, I keep feeling down and stressed out all the time. I took on a part-time job because I can’t see myself working fulltime just yet. I have never been so insecure about myself and my abilities in my entire life.

I decided to make a photo album of my trips with my boyfriend and ended up going through these boxes in search of things that I could add to the album. To my surprise, I had a ton of cards and letters from friends and family. There was even an email from my previous employer, from the very first job I ever had, in which she stated that I was a great employee and that I would be an asset to any firm.

You know how you always send out cards for the holidaysto your family and friends? Do you ever feel like they are repetitive and meaningless? Well, they are not. People might just hang on to them and have a physical piece of evidence that someone cares about them when they are going through tough times.

I know this is a DIY blog, and that you are probably not expecting a blog post about burnout. But DIY-ing has always been my way of getting through tough times. I started exploring the world of polymer clay and jewellery 5 years ago after an emotionally difficult time. It was a way of escaping reality by creating small objects with my hands.

This is what I will be doing now. I will create. I will make, I will fill my life with handmade joy. Because overcoming a burnout will take some time and being creative always does the trick for me.